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Thursday, January 18, 2018

The Darkness in Star Trek: Discovery

***WARNING: You bet there are spoilers! Hard not to with this series if you've watched past episode one - lol. So, if you don't want to be spoiled, move along. And I'm sorry to those who can't watch this show due to it being on CBS All Access. Honestly, it's worth the price.***

Yes, we shelled out the money for CBS All Access so we could watch Star Trek: Discovery. I have been a Trekkie since I was a kid, when my dad would turn on the Original Series (and promptly fell asleep in his recliner while I watched -- lol). So it was impossible to resist a new Star Trek series.

While I also loved the old stuff, I'm not one of those people who is going to poo-poo this new series just because it's different and not what one would expect from Star Trek. I feel it's wonderfully written. And oh, do I love the darkness (which is why I tend to write dark myself).

Most Star Treks feel more distant, as you're following the bigger cast for the most part. Discovery, though, feels more up close and personal -- you're clearly following Michael Burnham around. From one ship to the next even. Though scenes aren't relegated to only ones with her in it, she still seems like the central glue that holds it all together. And it makes for a pretty powerful story, in my opinion.

Yet even though she's the focus, the things that happen aren't always done to her, which was well thought out. In the episode where Harry Mudd is resetting the timeline (and killing everyone on the Discovery off each iteration) it's not Michael who realizes what's going on, but Lieutenant Paul Stamets. Of course it made sense that he was aware of it, and it was refreshing to see that it wasn't Michael who first realized the problem.

I do love the show, and waiting a full week for the next episode has been a special kind of torture (the long break was even worse). But that doesn't mean I don't have some dislikes and criticisms.

My biggest issue, even 11 episodes into the season, is the physical change they made to the Klingons. I prefer them looking like Worf. Really a small quibble, if you think about it. I understand why they wanted to make some changes like this, but I can't help but wish I was looking at the Klingons I grew used to in Star Trek: Next Generation.

The other thing that kind of gave me an eye twitch was the false bait in the previews. "Oh, look, it's a Star Trek with a female captain and female first officer." I was super psyched for this. But then by the end of episode two, the aforementioned captain is dead and Michael is stripped of rank for being a mutineer. I mean, it's great story-telling, of course, but I still feel like I was fooled. Now we're on a ship with both a male captain and first officer. Though in the alternate universe, things do get a little mixed up (Emperor Georgiou, anyone?). Michael's actually a captain, and so is Tilly (I hope she keeps that hairdo when she returns to the right universe - lol). Still, that false hope from the previews still has me a little bitter.

OK, enough of the negative. I shouldn't dwell on that because overall Star Trek: Discovery rocks.

I actually re-watched episodes one through nine before the second half of the season started up. And lo and behold, I noticed several things I had missed my first watch-through (I don't read many articles and Easter Egg bits on the internet, so don't raise that eyebrow at me).
The biggest was that Captain Lorca has a Tribble! And once I noticed the darn thing in the first episode, I wondered how I'd missed it the whole time when I kept seeing it in subsequent episodes. The noise I had mistaken for a computer was actually the Tribble!

I love Tribbles. I should have named one of my cats Tribble... maybe a future cat. ;)

Anyway, I can't wait to see the rest of the season and what new darkness will be discovered.

What do you think about Star Trek: Discovery? Love it, hate it, aren't quite sure yet? No matter if you agree with me, I hope you live long and prosper!

2 comments:

Put me in the Hardcore-Trekker-who-was-Disappointed camp. I couldn't get past the first episode. It was so far removed from Gene Roddenberry's vision and from the original series as to be unrecognizable as "Star Trek". J.J. Abrams' reboot was the worst thing to ever happen to the franchise, and this continuation of an "alternate universe" isn't getting any better.

I can understand why you and several others feel Discovery isn't as faithful to the franchise as it could be. I think one of the reasons I do love it so much is because I'm trying to assess it as a series on its own, not necessarily connected to all the Star Treks that came before. And of course even though I like Discovery, that doesn't mean I love the older Star Treks any less (Next Gen and Voyager will probably always be my favorites). For me, I think it's a case of loving Discovery and previous Star Treks for different reasons, since they are so different, but not loving one over the other. ;)

About Me

Alexa Grave loves to tell stories, but sometimes her characters decide to tell the stories for her. When she's not being dragged around by her characters, she can be found blogging on anything she thinks may interest her readers. Humor is intended in many of her posts, but if you can't see it, please humor her! Oh, and she has an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction.